The recent advent of audiovisual type teaching methods have also been applied to the instruction of music and musical instruments. Various audiovisual instructional devices have been developed for use with the teaching of piano. A visual or display type device for stringed musical instruments of the type wherein strings are depressed along a fingerboard at various positions to obtain different notes and chords is even more adapted to instruction with display type devices than other types of instruments. This is especially true for chord type instruments such as the guitar.
There have been previous attempts to develop display type teaching devices for use with stringed instruments, such as guitar, as evidenced by the Weitzner U.S. Pat. No. 3,403,591 and the Ward U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,330. The Weitzner patent is directed to more of a self-instruction type of procedure in which a trial and error technique is used. A fingerboard display connected to the guitar is activated by a coded sheet of music. Successful duplication of the chord on the guitar itself advances the music and extinguishes the lamp indicating means for the previous chord.
In the Ward U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,330, a display board is illuminated responsive to the playing of the instrument by an instructor or student to illustrate by lamps on a modified fingerboard representation the proper string depression patterns to achieve selected chords. Although the Ward type apparatus achieves some of the objects to provide a suitable instructional device, certain problems are still not solved. For example, many instructors and/or students prefer to use a chord diagram, as opposed to a fingerboard representation. Alternatively, some instructors prefer to use a chord diagram and a fingerboard representation. The Ward apparatus does not include a chord diagram. Moreover, and more importantly, when the instructor releases the string, in the Ward apparatus, the lamps are extinguished, therefore the teacher does not have freedom to move around and help the students while the chord representation remains illuminated. Also, it is not possible to show how one chord may be built on another by keeping the lamps corresponding to one chord illuminated as one or more other chords are illustrated on the fingerboard diagram. Further, there is no readout on the Ward apparatus for showing the fingering of the chord, i.e. the student cannot determine which finger should be used on which string, which is very important in forming some chords.